Super Mario: Beta
by StandardOperation
Summary: A revolutionary new technology emerges, and a select few winners will be the first to try it out! Unfortunately, things don't always go as planned, and the "innocent beta test" turns into something more.
1. Prologue

Chapter 1: Prologue.

"Have you ever throught to yourself, 'hey, wouldn't it be cool if a company found out a way to make video games real'? Well look no further than this! Today, Nintendo is unveiling a revolutionary new product, the NinTenPortal! Using you brain waves as a sort of 'gateway', the NinTenPortal puts you in a coma-like state, in which you simulate the blahblahblah..." The young man sighed, as he read the pamphlet aloud. "Looks like a scam." He told his younger brother, who had so eagerly handed him this.

"No big brother!" The child said. "A man from Nintendo came to our school and gave us these!" he said, bounding up and down excitedly, his long bangs slapping against his forehead as he did. "If we fill them out and send them in we can win a chance to.. uhm.." He paused for a moment, trying to think of the word.

"Beta test it?" The man asked, setting the pamphlet on the adjacent table, raisning a single eyebrow inquisitively, something he did quite often.

"Y-yeah! And then if we win we can go actually be in a game!" He exclaimed, the seemingly lost energy suddenly returning. "Can we enter brother? Pleeeaaase?" The child begged, putting on the best imitation of a puppy dog stare that he could muster.

"Sorry little brother, but you're not old enough." The young man told the child,almost apologetically. "You have to be at least thirteen, and you're twelve."

"Twelve and a half!" The child retorted, folding his arms. "It's not fair, I wanna go see Maaariooo.." The child looked down, seeming let down by this news.

"It's just how the world works little brother~" The man said in a sing-song voice, grinning. "How about this. If I win, I promise to tell you all about it."

The child nodded, seeming to be satisfied by this. "A-and you'll bring me back a hat?" He asked, no, more pleaded than asked.

The man smiled and patted his brothers head. "I'll bring you back the best Mario hat I can find." He told him, making the child smile and run off to go play. This gave him a chance to closely examine the pamphlet. "Fill out the form below, and return to your local post office?" He read aloud again, not believing the last part. "How the hell could they know where to send it..?" He sighed and set about looking for a pen. _"On the other hand, if I dont fill this out he'll cry and say I could have gone..." _He thought, sighing in his head as he pulled open a stuffed drawer, knocking aside paper and pencils, eventually picking up a pen and trudging back to the table. "So name, address, age..." He began thinking aloud again as he scribbled in the nessecary information. "There. Done." He told himself as he signed the dotted line at the bottom. "Now I just mail it in." He sighed and stood up, leaving the pamphlet on the table as he went to grab his shoes.


	2. Ch 2: No Such thing as luck

Chapter 2: No such thing as luck

As he stepped into the nearly-deserted post office, he was greeted by a familliar voice.

"Hey Lucas, you entering that Nintendo contest too?" Was what he was greeted with. He swirled around, grinning at the woman behind him.

"Of course Flit, I'd never hear the end of it if I didn't." Lucas joked, stepping backwards in such a way that it caused him to walk backwards. "So why are you entering? I thought you hated Nintendo." He asked her, tilting his head and doing his signature eyebrow-raising.

"Sure, but miss out on something like _this_? Not on your life." She laughed as she said this, slapping the brochure on the counter.

"Ah well, if you win, just dont complain to me about the realism of the games or anything." He teased, setting his pamphlet next to hers with a flick of his wrist, and spinning back around so he's facing the proper direction. "Well, I'd better get going, Mrs. Anderson is paying me to clear her attic and basement, and I don't want to be late." He said putting one foot in front of the other, heading for the door.

"Alright, seeya Lucas, good luck!" Flit shouted to him, waving cheerily as Lucas stepped through the doors to the outside world.

_"Luck? There's no such thing as luck." _He thought to himself as he walked, I'd describe the journey of the walk to Mrs. Anderson's, the cracked pavement, the change from downtown to dramatic suburb, and the quite stubborn dog that persisted on blocking his path, but quite frankly, I doubt you'd be interested in such nonsense, so let us skip straight there, shall we?

As he arrived at Mrs. Anderson's, he heard a rather peculiar sound. It seemed to be muffled, yet completely audiable. It seemed to be the cross between walking and screaming. Taking notice of this, he scooted against the wall, silently moving along it, peeking into the kitchen and seeing someone. He quickly tore his gaze away to hide himself, then prepared to strike. He quickly jumped out from the corner, and sighed to himself. It was Mrs. Anderson, she seemed to have burned her finger, and was muffling her own yelling and doing what to an outsider would seem to be a horrid attempt at dancing.

"You need some water, Mrs. Anderson?" He asked, hiding any tone of annoyance as he stepped further into the kitchen, stuffing his hands into his pockets, something he was prone to doing from time-to-time.

"N-no dear." The frail woman replied, her pain seeming to have died down. "But you can g-get started on the a-attic for m-me." She stuttered as she spoke. Lucas being used to this, didn't notice.

"Right away ma'am." He told her, piviting on his heel and heading for the hallway, which once he got there, had a staircase that lead to the attic.

Now I'm sure you want me to describe the cleanup job, which was filled with cobwebs, and many old trinkets and furniture. And I'm sure you want me to point out how musty the room smelled throughout the 3 hours he spent there, but quite frankly, I cannot bore myself with such monotonous narration, so again we will skip to the next part: Just after the journey home.

As Lucas pushed open the door, exhausted from the tedious work of clearing an attic, he was greeted by the blur of his brother, who had leaped onto his chest, knocking him clear over.

"Did you send it? Did you? Huh?" The child interrogated, sitting on his chest.

Lucas laughed, and wheezed too. The child had knocked the wind out of him, and after he regained his composure, he arched his head mockingly. "Send what? I was supposed to send something?" He feigned ignorance, making it seem like he really didnt know.

"Dont tell me you forgot already!" The child teased back. "I guess thats what I get for not doing it." They both looked at eachother and broke down laughing.

After the laughing died down, and the child got off of him, Lucas stood, brushing himself off. "Anyways, what are you doing up? Its half past eight, you should be asleep by now." He asked, a hint of scold in his voice.

"Sorry, but someone took too long, and I had to stay up to make sure he mailed a certain pan.. Pam... Panm.." The child struggled with the word, eventually just substituting it with "Letter."

Lucas shook his head, then sighed inwardly. "Alright, but off to bed, the results come in tommorow, and if you're asleep, you wont be able to congratulate me." He teased.

"Oh fiiine." The child whined. "Good luck then, good night!" The child retreated to his room as he said this, causing Lucas to shake his head and stuff his hands into his pockets.

"There's no such thing as luck." He mumbled to himself, heading for the living room.

Now normally I'd describe the rest of the night, which continued without event -unless you count a rather nasty food explosion in the microwave as eventful- and eventually Lucas had gone to sleep. Though _his_ night was uneventful, I can't say the same for the pamphlets, which after being placed on the counter, had to go through quite a journey. Almost immediately after being placed on the counter, the pamphlets were whisked away, and set into a special mail sack, much like the one they use for letters to Santa Claus, and had been tied. The sack had then been put into a nondescript black van, which had driven quite quickly to the airport. Once there, the sack was removed from the van by the driver, who rushed to the second last counter on the bottom floor, and gave the sack to a male counter worker. The male had then set the sack on a conveyor belt, which moved it to the pile of mail to be shipped to Japan.

After about three hours, almost simultanious with the finishing of the attic cleaning, the plane had landed in Japan. Now I'm not sure of the way the parcel delivery works in Japan, and as to prevent any misconception, I will just say that as the sack was placed with the rest of the pamphlet sacks, Lucas had just been attacked by his small child of a brother. And as Lucas drifted off to sleep, the worldwide broadcast of the pamplet pulling began.

During the long, and commercial-filled event, there were many announcements, and descriptions of people who were important to the invention, and generally it was set up to build anticipation. When the moment of truth came along, the first to win was a UN worker by the name of Pedro. He was named this by his mother, and it has no affiliation with his home country, which happened to be England. At the time of his win, he was siting home alone, watching the broadcast. He nearly choked on his popcorn when he saw that he had won, and immediately phoned his mother and everyone he knew.

The second winner was a young woman, who actually had shown up to the broadcast. Her name just so happened to be Zelda, named after the Legend of Zelda series, as her parents, as was she, were huge fanatics of Nintendo, and associated much with their products and games. She also happened to come from America, but spoke Japenese, Spanish, and English. At the time she was mumbling something about how the contests are rigged, and didnt notice her win until they focused the cameras on her. When she came to the realization, she was... Overjoyed, to say the least.

The third winner was a Canadian Fisherman, by the name of Dave. No, not David, which is typically nick-named into Dave. At the time he was at home, screwing in a new lightbulb, still wearing his fishing overalls. As he didnt get the television on until just after, he didnt know he won until much later.

The second-last winner was a black international traveler by the name of Lee. He was not, though you would assume he was, named after either Bruce Lee the actor, or Rock Lee the Anime character. At the time, he was in an airplane, watching the broadcast through an on-board television. His reaction, though happy, was nothing more than a smirk. Just after, he had flicked off the contraption and pushed his fedora over his eyes.

The very last winner was one of much delay, the drawing being cut off just before with a commercial for Pepsi. After the quite flashy, and high-budget, commercial ended, the lights were dimmed, and the busty female announcer reached into the pamplet pile, digging her hand down deep and grabbing a single pamplet. As she pulled the pamplet up, she "accidentally" dropped it, further delaying the result, and bent over to pick it up. Overall this was jst to delay the result, and give the viewers a better look at the eye-candy. After she righted herself, she opened the pamplet and shouted the winner: It was Lucas himself! At the time of this once-in-a-lifetime win, he was drooling on his pillow on the couch.

TO BE CONTINUED


End file.
